The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Aspects of the invention relate to an open roof construction for a vehicle, comprising a roof opening provided in a stationary roof part of the vehicle and movable means for opening and closing the roof opening, wherein at least a first and second drive member are provided for cooperation with the movable means, which at least first and second drive member are movable in a direction of the vehicle by a common drive source and are spaced in said direction. Said direction generally will be a longitudinal or transverse direction of the vehicle.
When state of the art vehicles are provided with a single large roof opening, it is common to use a single roof module which is provided with an integrated central transverse or longitudinal beam. However, in such a case the rather large dimensions of the roof opening may lead to a decrease of the constructional stability of the vehicle. Thus there is an increasing demand for the use of two roof openings which are separated by a beam which is integrated into the vehicle body. Each roof opening then is provided with its own roof module (although it is conceivable that these roof modules are connected to each other).
Generally such roof modules will be mounted into the respective roof opening in a vertical direction, such that it is not possible to have parts of said roof modules positioned underneath (for top loaded modules) or above (for bottom loaded modules) the stationary roof part or beam. This results in a situation in which, because of the presence of the beam, it is very difficult to use the drive source of the first module for also driving the drive member of the second roof module. Only by means of complicated measures such a drive connection between the first and second roof modules might be obtained.
The above problems also may arise with open roof constructions comprising constructional parts projecting into the roof opening and thus hindering or even preventing such a mounting in a vertical direction.